At the Sky's Edge: Poems 1991-1996

by Bei Dao, David Hinton (Translator), Michael Palmer (Foreword)

In his first retrospective volume of poetry in English, two of Bei Dao's previous books -- Forms of Distance (1994) and Landscape Over Zero (1996) -- are gathered together in one bilingual paperbook edition. At The Sky's Edge: Poems 1991-1996 marks a pivotal point in the poet's oeuvre, presenting the increasingly lyrical, meditative poems written in the years following his banishment from China in 1989.Translated into twenty-five languages, Bei Dao's work has long been appreciated internationally, but is just recently gaining a larger audience in the U.S. At The Sky's Edge becomes Bei Dao's seventh book published by New Directions and is the first time Forms of Distance appears in a paperbook edition. The translations of David Hinton, who was awarded the prestigious Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from The Academy of American Poets in 1997, capture both the musicality and density of the original Chinese. Quiet, spare, these are poems of paradox and possibility, of words carefully balanced, of a world on edge.

Genres: Poetry, China

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Name in Chinese: 北岛

Bei Dao ("Northern Island") is another name for Zhifu Island.
Bei Dao literally "Northern Island", born August 2, 1949) is the pen name of Chinese poet Zhao Zhenkai. He was born in Beijing. He chose the pen name because he came from the north and because of his preference for solitude. Bei Dao is the most notable representative of the Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution.

As a teenager, Bei Dao was a member of the Red Guards, the enthusiastic followers of Mao Zedong who enforced the dictates of the Cultural Revolution, often through violent means. He had misgivings about the Revolution and was "re-educated" as a construction worker, from 1969 to 1980.[5] Bei Dao and Mang Ke founded the magazine Jintian[6] (Today), the central publication of the Misty Poets, which was published from 1978 until 1980, when it was banned. The work of the Misty Poets and Bei Dao in particular were an inspiration to pro-democracy movements in China. Most notable was his poem "Huida" ("The Answer") which was written during the 1976 Tiananmen demonstrations in which he participated. The poem was taken up as a defiant anthem of the pro-democracy movement and appeared on posters during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. During the 1989 protests and subsequent shootings, Bei Dao was at a literary conference in Berlin and was not allowed to return to China until 2006. (Three other leading Misty Poets — Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian — were also exiled.) His then wife, Shao Fei, and their daughter were not allowed to leave China to join him for another six years.

Since 1987, Bei Dao has lived and taught in England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and the United States. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages, including five poetry volumes in English[7] along with the story collection Waves (1990) and the essay collections Blue House (2000) and Midnight's Gate (2005). Bei Dao continued his work in exile. His work has been included in anthologies such as The Red Azalea: Chinese Poetry Since the Cultural Revolution (1990)[8] and Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese poetry.[9]

Bei Dao has won numerous awards, including the Tucholsky Prize from Swedish PEN, International Poetry Argana Award from the House of Poetry in Morocco and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Jintian was resurrected in Stockholm in 1990 as a forum for expatriate Chinese writers. He has taught and lectured at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Beloit College, Wisconsin, and is Professor of Humanities in the Center for East Asian Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I have been working in China for many years, much of the illusion and allusion, political, cultural and spiritual, were lost on me. But suddenly the clouds would open and lines of the utmost clarity, simplicity and philosophical meaning would strike at the core.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost entirely incomprehensible, but that is part of the point, and apparently part of Bei Dao's appeal. I came to appreciate the poems more after researching Bai Dao and learning about how his experimentation with form, the seemingly haphazard juxtaposition of imagery, and the almost random combination of thoughts in a single stanza is part of his personal artistic rebellion from Maoist strictures on art in China. But, despite the author's fascinating life story and admirable artistic vision and effort, these are not the kinds of poems I would want to sit down and re-read. When inscrutability is part of the aim, then I don't see too much value in painstakingly dissecting the verses.

Overall, I am very grateful to have stumbled across this collection at the thrift store and I am glad I picked it up and read it and learned about Bei Dao, but I don't think I will be digging too much deeper into this.

[yeri · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only reason I understood these poems were because we were all analyzing it together in class. My favorite one was about him reminiscing on his teenage days going to the movies (can’t remember the title); it felt really nostalgic. “In exile” he misses his home and how he can’t go back because he was exiled for being a member of the red guards(booho). This shows how much his experience during the cultural revolution influenced his work.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another collection I keep on my desk and at hand. The poems are beautiful, simplistic, and inspiring ... definitely the latter as several pages of my copy sport penciled in fancy of some sort of another. One of several that I loved is 'Old Places', p. 151.